November 2012

HONESDALE, PA — The Greater Honesdale Partnership is seeking talented craft vendors, antique dealers, artists and artisans, as well as specialty food vendors to participate in “Honesdale for the Holidays” to be held on Honesdale’s Main Street on Saturday, November 24, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

MILFORD, PA — The Delaware Valley Dance Company will be performing “The Nutcracker” at the Delaware Valley High School auditorium on Route 6 on Saturday, November 24 at 12 noon and 7 p.m. Tickets in advance are $12 and $8 for children and seniors. Tickets at the door are $14 and $10 for children and seniors. For more information contact The Dance Center at 845/856-3373.

HONESDALE, PA — “It’s easy to embarrass yourself, but I’m willing to fall on my face,” quipped Jason Smeltzer while describing the process of performing on an unusual and little-known instrument called the theremin. The early electronic instrument’s most characteristic feature is the fact that it is played without physical contact from the performer.

The public will have an opportunity to experience the theremin during a performance at Grace Episcopal Church on Courthouse Square in Honesdale at 7 p.m. on November 17. Read more

On Election Day after casting my ballot I took a drive down PA Route 191 to see the Larches.

It may sound like the surname of some old family friends who are up for the weekend or the long-lost name of a distant cousin (to be sure, the Larches are as contradictory as some of my most eccentric relatives) but they are friends of a different sort. Read more

There are a lot of issues swirling around our area that raise fundamental questions about what we want to be. I have been involved in many of them over the years. Today, it’s natural gas, but a decade ago it was rapid growth. A decade before that it was about gaming and before that it was the designation of the Upper Delaware as a Scenic and Recreational River. Read more

We just voted yesterday, after moving back to New York last year to be with our 5-year-old grandson. One of the things that astonished us was the difficulty in discovering who and what was going to be on the ballot. In California, for instance, weeks before every election a copy of the ballot is sent to each registered voter. Included in this mailing are statements from the various candidates which allow voters to make a reasoned decision about how to vote. Voters were allowed to take their marked-up sample ballots into the voting booth. Read more

Now that the privatization people who caused our post office problems are not in the majority it is time to let our legislators know what we want and demand that we be treated fairly. We bailed out banks that caused our problems, saved the auto industry, but the post office that serves us daily, which has been voted the most trusted agency in government, crucial to people without transportation and bank accounts is being dismantled. Read more

On Sunday, we honored America’s 22 million veterans. Nine million of these are 65 and older, veterans of long-ago wars. Another nine million are between 18 and 64. Now, our newest generation of veterans—2.4 million Americans who fought in Iraq or Afghanistan—are arriving back home to face many challenges. Far too many will not get all the help they need and, considering their sacrifices, certainly not all that they are owed. Read more